Monday, November 28, 2011

20 minutes is not too much time to invest in this excellent "movie" about The Story of Stuff !! Hopefully it will inspire and encourage you to think differently about how you use resources and how you spend and consume personally - so that you can make influence the scope of the world. (Several additional supplemental videos are also available under the links to "movies" at the site! Good stuff to think about effecting the Good for the All!)

And, the principles and ideas imbedded in this article from The Sierra Club on Why Consumption Matters - provides keen insight to rethink patterns of life that effect the Good for the All! The article concludes with these words:

The solutions to questions of justice and equity that pertain to our consumption patterns will require a reexamination of our values, the products we buy, the layout of our communities, and ultimately global trade. As a start, we should promote fair trade, livable wages, and better city planning that mixes people of different incomes. Most importantly, valuing people for who they are and how they spend their time, rather than for what they wear, drive, or own, is a simple but important act, that will serve as the foundation of a more just society.

Acccording to a the owner and publisher of Israel's oldest newspaper, Haaretz ("the land") - Yitzhak Rabin addressed in 1993, the "threat" of "Iran" having nuclear weapons - but with a very different kind of appeal compared to what has recently been in the news.

Speaking in the Knesset in January 1993, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said, "Iran is in the initial stages of an effort to acquire nonconventional capability in general, and nuclear capability in particular. Our assessment is that Iran today has the appropriate manpower and sufficient resources to acquire nuclear arms within 10 years. Together with others in the international community, we are monitoring Iran's nuclear activity. They are not concealing the fact that the possibility that Iran will possess nuclear weapons is worrisome, and this is one of the reasons that we must take advantage of the window of opportunity and advance toward peace."

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Peace can only come for all persons when we take time to know multiple stories.

Here are four stories that might help us better understand the complexities of conflict - in order that we might better promote peace.

A Palestinian teenager whose family is forced to give up part of their home and live under the same roof as a family of settlers. He comes of age in the face of unrelenting tension with his neighbors and unexpected cooperation with Israeli allies in his backyard.

An American-born Israeli mother who to her own surprise becomes involved in the demonstrations after her children are arrested for protesting.

A Palestinian community organizer from Sheikh Jarrah who spearheads the involvement of local women in the movement while facing the risk of losing her own home to the settlers.

A former Israeli soldier from a religious background who only several years after his combat service in the West Bank finds himself taking on a leading role in the protests.